Matt Munro

Punjab (India)

A particularly tourist-friendly region, thanks to its strong expatriate connections with the UK and Canada, Punjab, the homeland of India’s Sikh population, provides a wonderful opportunity to go traipsing into the backyards of North India. The Golden Temple in Amritsar is an undoubted highlight, but Punjab hides other small treasures among its agricultural expanses. Rarely visited towns like Patiala, Bathinda and Faridkot contain seemingly lost-in-time marketplaces and crumbling forts that hint at faded grandeur, while welcoming gurdwaras (Sikh temples) are to be found across the state.

Irrigated by mighty Himalayan rivers such as the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej, Punjab is also a region of fertile land that supplies the bulk of India's demand for wheat and rice, while also doubling as a nerve centre of India's textile and manufacturing industries.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Punjab (India).

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Golden Temple
The legendary Golden Temple is actually just a small part of this huge gurdwara complex, known to Sikhs as Harmandir Sahib. Spiritually, the focus of attention is the tank that surrounds the gleaming central shrine – the Amrit Sarovar, from which Amritsar takes its name, excavated by the fourth Sikh guru, Ram Das, in 1577. Ringed by a marble walkway, the tank is said to have healing powers, and pilgrims come from across the world to bathe in its sacred waters. Floating at the end of a long causeway, the Golden Temple itself is a mesmerising blend of Hindu and Islamic architectural styles, with an elegant marble lower level adorned with flower and animal motifs in pietra dura work (as seen on the Taj Mahal). Above this rises a shimmering second level, encased in intricately engraved gold panels, and topped by a dome gilded with 750kg of gold. In the gleaming inner sanctum (photography prohibited), priests and musicians keep up a continuous chant from the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh holy book), adding to the already intense atmosphere. Given the never-ending beeline of devotees, you will likely only get a few minutes within the sanctum before you are gently urged to exit and make way for other devotees. Entry and exit are both via the causeway. The Guru Granth Sahib is installed in the temple every morning and returned at night to the Akal Takhat, the temporal seat of the Khalsa brotherhood. The ceremony takes place at 5am and 9.30pm in winter, and 4am and 10.30pm in summer. Inside the Akal Takhat, you can view a collection of sacred Sikh weapons. The building was heavily damaged when it was stormed by the Indian army during Operation Blue Star in 1984. It was repaired by the government but Sikhs refused to use the tainted building and rebuilt the tower from scratch. More shrines and monuments are dotted around the edge of the compound. Inside the main entrance clock tower, the Sikh Museum shows the persecution suffered by the Sikhs at the hands of Mughals, the British and Indira Gandhi. At the southeast end of the tank is the Ramgarhia Bunga, a protective fortress topped by two Islamic-style minarets; inside is a stone slab once used for Mughal coronations, but which was seized from Delhi by Sikh forces in 1783.
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Guru-Ka-Langar
At the southeast end of the Golden Temple Complex is the Guru-Ka-Langar, an enormous dining room where an estimated 100,000 pilgrims come to eat every day after praying at the Golden Temple. There’s no charge to eat here, but a donation is appropriate, and voluntary help with the staggering pile of washing up is always appreciated. Catering equally to everyone from paupers to millionaires, it's a humbling demonstration of the Sikh principles of hospitality, community service and charity. The meals themselves comprise simple but sumptuous servings of dhal, roti and rajma (kidney beans), handed out by temple workers to diners who sit cross-legged on the floor and eat off stainless steel plates. There are no seating categories, so you could be sharing dining space with anyone from beggars to corporate bosses. The dining room is open round the clock, and epitomises the popular Sikh saying that no one in Amritsar ever goes to bed on a hungry stomach.
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Golden Temple Interpretation Centre
Hidden beneath the marble square outside the clock-tower entrance to the Golden Temple, this fascinating multimedia museum tells the story of Sikhism and the significance of the Golden Temple through four entertaining 15-minute videos projected onto first an inverted pyramid, then a 180-degree cinema, then a screen above a 3D scale model of the temple and finally on a screen inside a shrine-like room. Showings start every hour, just past the hour. Swap your photo ID for an English-translation headset.
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Partition Museum
Housed in the beautifully restored 19th-century Town Hall, this unique museum (the only one in the world dedicated to Partition) offers a poignant and often-haunting portrayal of the tragic events leading up to, during and following Partition. Newspaper cuttings, photographs (some of which people may find disturbing) and video interviews tell the tumultuous story from the point of view of the survivors of what was the largest migration in human history.
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Amrit Sarovar
Spiritually, the focus of attention within the Golden Temple Complex is the tank that surrounds the gleaming central shrine. Known as the Amrit Sarovar, from which Amritsar takes its name, it was excavated by the fourth Sikh guru Ram Das in 1577. Ringed by a marble walkway, the tank is said to have healing powers, and pilgrims come from across the world to bathe in its sacred waters.
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Mata Temple
Credited with fertility-improving powers, this fascinating labyrinthine Hindu temple commemorates the 20th-century female saint Lal Devi. From the main hall, a narrow series of stairways and passages winds past mirrored mosaics, fairground-style carvings and untold deity statues to a semisubmerged mock-up of the Vasihno Devi cave temple. Walking west along GT Rd, turn right after the train station, up Albert Rd, then take the first left and the temple will be to your left at the end of the lane.
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Jallianwala Bagh
Reached through a narrow gatehouse leading to an enclosed courtyard, this poignant park commemorates the 1500 Indians killed or wounded when a British officer ordered his soldiers to shoot unarmed protesters in 1919. Some of the bullet holes are still visible in the walls, as is the well into which hundreds desperately leapt to avoid the bullets. There’s an eternal flame of remembrance, an exhibition telling stories of victims, and a Martyrs’ Gallery, with portraits of independence heroes.
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Akal Takhat
The Guru Granth Sahib is installed in the temple every morning and returned at night to the Akal Takhat, the temporal seat of the Khalsa brotherhood. The ceremony takes place at 5am and 9.30pm in winter, and 4am and 10.30pm in summer. Inside the Akal Takhat you can view a collection of sacred Sikh weapons. The building was heavily damaged when it was stormed by the Indian army during Operation Blue Star in 1984. Sikhs rebuilt the tower from scratch.
See
Ram Bagh
Ram Bagh was the former palace grounds of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780–1839), who founded the Sikh empire. It now serves as a public park. At its heart, you'll find the summer palace of the former maharaja, in commission between 1818 and 1837. It's a modest structure in comparison to some of India's other palaces but atmospheric nonetheless. In the park's northwest corner is Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama, a low-tech museum depicting the maharaja’s greatest battles